Next Mayor of Toronto?

[GraphicMatt]

Rob Ford running would also potentially get him off Council, which would be awesome. (He'd have to stick with the race til the end, though, and not drop out of the mayoral race early and seek his council seat again.)

 

[nfitz]

For this reason alone I wonder why every subway station (in particular those with bus loops) doesn't have a coffee shop in it's fare paid area. It's far better, IMHO, to have a driver grab a coffee while stopped at the station than stopping at a street corner on route.

Surely there are coffee machines in the non-customer section of the station ... though perhaps that's asking a lot of an agency that can't even put ticket dispensing machines in most of the stations.

 

[Eug]

What ever happened with Ford's assault charges?

EDIT:

Exonerated.

 

[SimonP]

Giambrone made clear that he might not stay on as TTC chair for the whole campaign:

Giambrone said he has unfinished work at the TTC, saying he'll continue for now and it "might be appropriate" to step down "when the campaign heats up."

Link

 

[makattack]

There was great energy and enthusiasm. Giambrone's supporters are passionate about him.

They really must have been handing out the kool-aid there last night!

I can't believe the arrogance of Giambrone! The silly Youtube video, the TTC disasters, and now he thinks he can be mayor!

 

[TonyV]

This campaign is starting to be fun. Yesterday, Smitherman took the gloves off, and took swipes at both Giambrone and Rossi.

... The Giambrone thing is soooo bad I could actually end up giving him a sympathy vote, but I promise that it won't come to that.

I sort of wish that Ford would jump in, so that Rossi and Ford could split the idiot vote.

 

[eddiek]

This campaign is starting to be fun. Yesterday, Smitherman took the gloves off, and took swipes at both Giambrone and Rossi.

... The Giambrone thing is soooo bad I could actually end up giving him a sympathy vote, but I promise that it won't come to that.

I sort of wish that Ford would jump in, so that Rossi and Ford could split the idiot vote.

Here are some things Smitherman said..

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/toronto/smitherman-pledges-ttc-overhaul/article1452754/

If your read some of the comments in the article, it shoes that there are a lot of fed up voters...

 

[GraphicMatt]

yes, i'm sure they where there for Giambrone and not the cool-aid they where serving.

it's interesting that those kind of events - drunken kids slobering and urinating on the side streets, is exactly what Pantalone was against in his ward.

Is this just a dream you had or something? I'm not sure where you got the impression this was some all-out party complete with crazy boozing and public urination. Stop making stuff up.

p.s. if giambrone wins,

i plan on selling my house, applying for social housing, and working for the TTC..

it will be an amazing life filled with undisturbed naps and union protection.

Hell, why wait, do it now! I don't see a downside to it! A bedbug-infested house in a high-crime area and a job that pays an average salary where the customers hate you? Sign me the hell up.

 

[W. K. Lis]

What's this platform from Giambrone about extending the municipal vote to permanent residents? If you want to vote, become a citizen first, simple as that. If you don't want to become a citizen, that means you are not here permanently.

 

[GraphicMatt]

What's this platform from Giambrone about giving the permanent residents of Toronto, a vote? If you want to vote, become a citizen first, simple as that.

This isn't a new idea. I think Miller supported it too: http://www.ivotetoronto.org/

There are some good arguments behind it, though there is of course a strong cynical argument to be made that left-wing politicians are pushing for the change because they know almost all of the new immigrant vote would go their way.

 

[Glen]

What's this platform from Giambrone about extending the municipal vote to permanent residents? If you want to vote, become a citizen first, simple as that. If you don't want to become a citizen, that means you are not here permanently.

Rightly or wrongly, that was the only thing of substance he said that I could find reported on. Giambrone, for all his talk of city building seems nothing more than the status quo, perhaps slightly accelerated.

 

[kettal]

Giambrone means well, but most of his pet projects have turned out very ham-fisted, from my perspective.

 

[Eug]

It seems like Smitherman is taking a decidedly centrist approach, not as left as some were hoping.

 

[GraphicMatt]

Here are some things Smitherman said..

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/toronto/smitherman-pledges-ttc-overhaul/article1452754/

If your read some of the comments in the article, it shoes that there are a lot of fed up voters...

If you read the comments to ANY news article on a major Canadian news website, you'd come to the conclusion that there are a ton of fed up voters who are afraid of Canada sliding toward socialism (or communism). It's irrelevant fluff. Most of them don't even live in Toronto.

---

Smitherman is talking policy! Here are some of the key pieces:

TOUGHNESS!

“If my bureaucracy basically shot me the finger,” Mr. Smitherman said, “well, I’ll let my reputation speak for itself … a shrug of the shoulders and the middle finger salute isn’t going to cut it.” Mr. Smitherman’s clever politicking is the first sign of how pitched the battle to lead Toronto could be.

ROAD PRICING!

On road tolls? He won’t rule them out, and he isn’t afraid to debate road pricing.

CONTINUING STUDIES!

On ripping down the Gardiner Expressway east of Jarvis Street? Mr. Smitherman won’t halt the ongoing environmental assessment – which he reluctantly signed off on as a provincial minister – but he doesn’t see how the city can afford to tear it down.

He called pursuing the Gardiner teardown a “powerful symbol” of the Miller government biting off more than it could chew or pay for. “No one has a frigging clue where those dollars are going to come from.”

(No one has a frigging clue how we're going to pay to rebuild huge pieces of it when it starts crumbling in a decade or two, either)

LOWER PROPERTY TAXES!

On property taxes? They need to be kept in check or reduced, particularly for businesses, Mr. Smitherman said. Fiscal restraint must rule. “My view is that the challenges the city faces dictates that every individual, that every part of the entity, must be prepared to put something back on the table

POLITICIANS OFF THE TTC!

When it comes to the TTC, politicians should be relegated to a minority on the board, he said. Private-sector experts and riders should comprise the majority. And yes, Mr. Smitherman takes the TTC, though his husband owns a car for work.

COFFEE AT SHOPS THAT CANNOT PHYSICALLY EXIST!

“I’ve got my token pocket here,” he said, reaching into his black winter coat and slapping a pile of tokens and change on the table at a coffee shop at Yonge and Victoria.

BIKE LANES ON ARTERIALS!

“I think that the idea that we’re going to have a city where bicycles are relegated to crescents and cul-de-sacs is ridiculous,” he scoffed, a clear dig at Rocco Rossi, the former president of the federal Liberal Party who is trying to challenge Mr. Smitherman from the right.

All in all, a mixed bag, but more good than bad. I'm leaning his way though with a ton of reservations.

 

[nfitz]

I can't believe the arrogance of Giambrone! The silly Youtube video, the TTC disasters, and now he thinks he can be mayor!

What, as opposed the arrogance of Rossi's bizarre platform from 905, or Smitherman's month-long campaign with no platform?